Teachers are giving me a hard time pulling kids out of school

[mickey&arielsmom]

Funny, I am a first grade teacher and we had "Open House" tonight. I actually let it slip that I would be out for 4 days in October to go to WDW. All comments were - "Can we come!" So I was on the other end of it..... Actually my school district does not require us to give work in advance to parents. They just have to make it up later.

I'm with you! I teach at a year round school so we can go at off times, but my daughter is on a different schedule and I'm pulling her out so we can go in February. As a teacher, I value education, but I also know that family time is important too. I am usually very understanding and cooperative when families want to pull their kids out of school for vacations.

 

[Zeebs]

Can I just ask?

Do they have another policy such as someone mentioned before where the work is stacked up and there for the child to make up when they return from the trip?

or they just don't allow catch up work?

If I was a teacher I certainly wouldn't want to have to email parents with absent children at the end of each day with catch up work. It would start a snowball situation in my mind, with 1. It becoming an expectation and 2. You could be having to do it every day with one or another child missing for various reasons, from sickness, hospital appointments, trips away etc....

And it would seem that teachers can't win, I have read posts where the children were expected to do some work while they were at WDW and the parents thought that was a bit harsh, and wanted to do it when they returned. And you want your children to do it while at WDW and not when they return.

Kirsten

 

[buzz5985]

I'm a little apprehensive about taking my DS out of school this coming November for 3 days, he's in 7th grade. After all today during his "Adolescent issues" class he learned all about the dangers of high fructose corn syrup. And during his "Directed Learning" session they watched videos on YouTube. Add on lunch, gym, music, art. He will miss about 10 hours of school over 3 days. I don't know how he will ever keep up!!!

If your teacher can't tell you a general idea of the what he is teaching while your child is out it sounds like the teacher has no plan. Start moving up the food chain - the vice principle, the principle, the superintendant. You will get what you need. I have only known one person that had to go to the School Council of the Town.

My DS just started teaching in a Charter School. Every day is planned out by the administration. Very high success rate in the school.

 

[ShannonMB]

Just wondering if they are just making it difficult by not emailing you daily for the assignments, or in other ways? Would he/she be able to make up the work when they come back? I have taken (and am again) DD out, but we do make up work as the teacher sees fit, I try to make it as easy on them as possible. Is when/how they get the assignments the only issue?

 

[Charleyann]

I work in a school in Canada. My feeling is one work force should not dictate a whole nation's vacation time! It should be an individual thing....


Charleyann

 

[PrincesCJM]

As a math high school teacher, any time I have parents who want updates on their students, or in this case want daily homework updates, I ask them to send me an email. I have 3 classes worth of students that I am responsible for and I'm not the best at remembering to send the "quick" email. I do much better when I have a reminder email. Also, there are days were I am so busy, I don't have time to check my email. For example today, I have a 715 meeting, classes all day with the added chaos of school picture day, a 210 meeting, a 300 meeting at another school, then I have to work my second job at 430.

Math is certainly a little bit easier to relay as a homework assignment but I find that students (at least at my school) do not read. They will not look back at the section before attempting homework problems. Many times I teach something different then the book does and students miss out on this.

While I understand the OP's point of view, please try and understand what teachers go through everyday.

 

[Schmeck]

We also belong to a small rural country school in Michigan- However, with today's technology -My 7th grader has 7 teachers, one gym, one band, one study hall leaves only 4 teachers that need to email me- He is in class for 50 mins, Is asking each of them to spend an extra 10 min sending me an email to much to ask?

The problem with your reasoning is that you are looking at the situation as if your child is the only one who will be absent, the only one who will need some of the teacher's prep time, etc.

If there are 3 children absent that day, that's 3 emails - of course a bulk email could be sent, but if the children are not in the same class, the work done in class could be different. That would be 30 minutes of email. That's taking 30 minutes of time that could be spent helping the kid who is actually in school...

 

[blondinkaya]

I can only tell you how it is in my kids' school system. Any absence for anything other than illness, one day for military stuff, or one day before or after a parent's deployment is considered unexcused. If a child has more than 5 unexcused absences in a row, a truancy contract must be signed. If a child has more than 8 unexcused absences in a semester, the family is placed into the family court system.

Makeup work is at the discretion of the teacher. They have the power to either allow it and count the grades or give the child a zero for the time missed.

That said, my boys will be out for 5 days, the week after Thanksgiving. I've already told all the teachers (one of my boys is in 9th grade and the other 1st). I asked them what their makeup policy is. Most have said that they'd be more than happy to give them their assignments before the Thanksgiving break (they're out the entire Thanksgiving week and can do the work before we go). The rest have said that making it up when we get back won't be a problem.

The teachers aren't the problem. It's the system's rules.

As a side note, I really miss the school my oldest attended a few bases ago. It had a homework line that parents could call and get the day's assignment after 6pm. If your school was set up like that and the teachers couldn't give you the assignments before you left, you could always call each day to get what your kid needed to do (without bugging the teacher). We used to call all the time to make sure our son was doing what he was supposed to.

 

[bluejasmine]

I havent had any prob with my kids schools for our trip next wk, I had to fax both principals(middle school and high school) was told to have a good time after I was told that it is my responsibility to make sure kids do all assignements on return. It sounds to me like asking the teacher to email you assignments daily is a bit of a task, teachers are so busy with daily planning, grading, plus their own home lives with family. I think maybe some understanding should come to play and you work with the kids when you get back on the assignments they missed. I think my kids would revolt if I had them do schoolwork on vacation, lol! Have a great trip

 

[jaminmd]

We leave next friday and this makes our fourth trip to WDW. This is the first year the teachers at school are giving us a hard time. They implimented a new attendance policy. I thought we were going early enough in the year that it wouldn't be such a big deal- both my DH and I have jobs that it is difficult to travel any other time then the fall-

I emailed the teachers and stated that we are taking a laptop and that I would email them daily to receive assignments since most of them can not give me a prepared lesson prior to our trip. No disrespect to teachers out there but I don't understand why they can not email me daily to let me know what pages in the text book they went over and what homework they assigned. I can not even get excited about our trip because this has become such an ordeal... Anyone else experience this with their trips?

There have been a lot of these threads this week & they're really getting ugly. OP, does your child have a friend they can call each night to find out what the homework was? This way, if they have a textbook, they can at least get some of the work done. They obviously won't be able to do any worksheets until they get home but something is better than nothing.

Have you checked the policy of your district? We are allowed 3 "discretionary absences." Anything beyond that has to be approved by the principal as excused, otherwise the students get zeros and are unable to make up the work. That is probably who you should discuss this with.

 

[Wistraveler]

My grandsons are spending a week at WDW starting Sunday. Their mother cleared it with the school district six months ago as that was the only time she could go. They are 8 and 11.

Their teachers gave both of them next weeks assignments on Tuesday. They both have them completed and will turn them in today. They are perhaps lucky that they are both advanced students and can handle working ahead with little difficulty. They value their education and didn't want to miss school.

What happens to the students who have a difficult time learning and need that one on one time with their teacher? Taking a week off may not be an option for them.

 

[MaggieMoo'sMom]

From what i've read on these boards it seems that people have a lot harder time taking their kids out of school in the US rather than here

That's because several idiots up on high decided they could "fix" America's education "problem" by placing impossible requirements on teachers and schools (No Child Left Behind). I teach 4th grade and my job now is to cram what I learned in late middle school into 9 year old minds that are not at a stage of development to absorb it. That is why teachers and school systems are so tough. We have to be in order to keep our jobs. Stepping down off the soapbox...

If it were me next time, my child would be "sick"..,

With that being said, I am taking myself out in 2 weeks for a day and a half before our Fall Break so we could get free dining( I booked before they extended it...) Yay! 13 days!!!!

 

[Disneyadore]

From what I've read on these boards it seems that people have a lot harder time taking their kids out of school in the US rather than here

Try to take a child out of school in my country.
First time 50 Euro's per day and second time 160 Euro's per day per child.

A few days before the vacations start the police and an official some one from the educations ministry are actually on the airport checking out who's trying to skip school before its official permitted.

 

[vicki_c]

Whether your school has a policy / doesn't have a policy on make up work, or whether you agree with your county's attendance policies, or whatever ...

I just don't think anyone should ask any teacher to do anything "special" for one student just because the parents decided to take a vacation during the school year.

We always take our kids out of school for trips, missing 2-4 days, but I would never ask the teacher to do anything out of the ordinary for my kids. It's my choice, why would I put an extra burden on the teacher for something I chose to do?

If the kids can't make up the work or catch up when they return, or if the school doesn't have a policy of giving out work in advance, etc., then you have to decide if it's really worth it. To us, so far, it still is, but I suspect that might be changing as we are getting near the middle school years.

 

[elmo2wdw]

For me the bottom line is....Family Comes First!!!! Missing one week of school is NOT going to effect my child for the rest of his life. I feel spending time with the family and having those memories are more important than any school work they might miss. I do realize my child will have work to make up and may shave some trouble with the work they missed and I am willing to except that and help them.

If something would happen to me tomorrow ..I want my child to have memories of me and the time we spent together...do you think that inlcudes a week of school work...hell NO! It would be the memories of us as a family!

Have a great trip!!

 

[longing2Batdisney]

This is just an idea!
But, what about your children having a friend from each class email them with the class info for the day. Here a lot of schools have an absentee buddy (elementary & middle school) one child in each class each day pulls the work for the absent kids and place it in a folder.

But, it may work in your situation. Having a friend that is in the class relay the info helps your child from falling behind and also helps the teachers in the task of having to add 5 more min to already busy day.

Good Luck! and have a great time while you are away!
We are trying to decide if we want to go back while our DS17 is in school or just go on and wait a little longer until next fall. Than he will be in college and have to make it up on his own/with the help of fellow classmates.

 

[kmvand1]

We always take our children out either in September or December every year. This year my son is a senior and played football. We decided to take a 4 day trip to Myrtle Beach at the beginning of August right after practice had started. That did not go over well with the coach and my son was penalized every game by standing on the sidelines and not playing at all with the exception of maybe two minutes. Well, fast forward to December when we have our upcoming scheduled trip and I just found out my son's first two basketball games are when we are supposed to be in Disney! Needless to say, I have had to cancel my son's and husband's trip and my daughter and I are going with my mother. My son's game has always been basketball and I am sure if he misses the first two games, he is off the team. So I guess my point is I used to be worried about dealing with the teachers, now it's the coaches!

 

[ParrotBill]

every school system is different, every teacher is different.

The times we have done this, I always let the teacher(s) know we have planned to be away (no specifics about where or why), and that we will be happy to take any work with us if they wish to send any, or give us pages/chapters to do to keep up, otherwise we are happy to make up all missed work within a few days.

We've been lucky that is has not been a problem for us so far. Last year we only did this for 3 days.

 

[seashoreCM]

That's because several idiots up on high decided they could "fix" America's education "problem" by placing impossible requirements on teachers and schools (No Child Left Behind). I teach 4th grade and my job now is to cram what I learned in late middle school into 9 year old minds that are not at a stage of development to absorb it. That is why teachers and school systems are so tough. !!!!

Give the child a second chance to absorb it.

He can spend weekends and/or vacations and/or summer to master the work on his own. If he still "didn't get it" he should retake the course the next year. The second time around he should be able to float or hover a little ahead of the rest of the class and may well (should? will?) get high honor grades.

How many parents took their kids out of school to go to Disney but every morning from about 8 to 11 the family stayed in the room doing schoolwork (parents helping)? Also phoning classmates every other day to keep up on assignments and perhaps having materials faxed down by classmates late afternoon or evening. The teachers would not be involved in any of the communications.

 

[RMulieri]

The reason why it is so difficult anymore is because of the "no child left behind" stuff.The teachers have to cram more and more education into our kids with the same amount ( sometimes less) time to work with.I understand the frustration.Mine and Dh's jobs really do not allow vacation time during summer months or holidays.So we are pretty much stuck with the Fall.It is not a problem right now ( DD is in Kindergarten) but after 3rd grade the attendance policy gets so strict that family vacations during the school year will be quite difficult.I don't blame the teachers though, and it is completely unrealistic to expect them to send daily play by play emails.Some teachers can do that, others simply can not .They work alot longer than an 8 hr day most days too.My neighbor is a 1st grade teacher in our district.She is gone at 645 am and doesn't get home till after 5pm at night.Kudos to all our teachers.